20 Minutes With: Urbani Truffles’ Vittorio Giordano

Vittorio Giordano, Vice President of Urbani Truffles, the largest truffle distributor in North America.
Daniele D'Agostino

By

Jeanette Settembre

Updated Jan. 7, 2019 1:32 p.m. ET

Urbani Truffles, the Umbria, Italy-based company that has been unearthing some of the world’s finest truffles for more than a century, often hand-delivers their discoveries to restaurants around the world so that top chefs and customers can choose a fragrant fungi themselves. That’s because no two are the same.

“One truffle has 120 different aromas. That means you can eat truffles everyday for the rest of your life and you’ll never have a truffle that tastes and smells the same,” says Vittorio Giordano, Vice President of Urbani Truffles.

The family-owned enterprise is the largest truffle distributor in North America, providing the delicacies throughout cities like New York, Miami, and Las Vegas at world-renowned restaurants including Daniel, Per Se, and Cafe Boulud, along with retailers like Citarella and Eataly.

“We deliver them on the subway, with the Vespa or the bicycle,” says Giordano, 44. “I want the customer to pick their own truffle. If you smell a truffle and you like, it doesn’t mean I’m going to like it, or vice versa. It’s like choosing a perfume.”

Giordano describes the 36-hour journey of a truffle from underground to table.

PENTA: How did you get into the truffle business?

Vittorio Giordano: I’ve been connected to truffles all my life. I’m from Torino, in the northwest region of Italy, just 45 minutes from Alba, where the truffle hunters drive to the source. It taught me how to get involved in the business.

I started to do food distribution and I fell in love with truffles until it became my only business. That’s where I really involved myself in all aspects of it, like going to buy the product—that’s probably the most difficult part of the business—dealing with truffle hunters and positioning the products in different markets. One day in 2005, [Urbani] asked me if I was interested in coming [to New York City]. The original plan was to be here for a couple of years but here I am 13 years later.

Describe the process of truffle hunting, and how long it takes to get truffles into the U.S..

Piedmont and Tuscany are the main regions where truffles are found, where the mountain tops and water make for the perfect climate. [Truffle hunters] try to hide where they go so they hunt during the night with their dogs. The dogs are trained since they’re puppies to smell truffles. During the day, the noises can really distract the dogs from doing their job; night is quiet, so they can be focused.

The truffles are at our facilities in the U.S. in less than 36 hours after the truffle was underground in Italy. By 10:30 a.m. the next day, I’m able to check the quality of the products, repack them, and distribute them all over the U.S. Everything needs to happen in a short amount of time because truffles are very perishable. Our goal is to make sure the product is fresh and aromatic.

How can you tell if a truffle is a quality product?

You pick your truffle with your nose. Honestly, unless the truffle is soft, spongy, and really smelling off like ammonia, there is no bad truffle. If you touch the product, and it’s firm and you like the smell, that is your truffle. White truffles are good for up to 10 days; black truffles are double that.

When is truffle season?

There are different seasons for the truffle. We have the white truffle from September to the end of year mainly coming from Italy in Piedmont and Tuscany. Then we have the black winter truffle starting now through the middle of March coming from Italy, Spain, and France. Summer truffle season starts in May and goes through the end of August.

What’s the most expensive truffle you’ve ever sold?

At a certain time of the year, there’s big truffles that are really rare and the price is always something that goes up. One three-pound truffle sold for up to $90,000. A pound of truffles can be sold for $20,000. Every year the price changes. We’ve sold truffles from $15,000 to $20,000 for one. White truffles more expensive because they are rare; there’s less area where you can find them.

20 Minutes With: Urbani Truffles’ Vittorio Giordano

Urbani Truffles, the Umbria, Italy-based company that has been unearthing some of the world’s finest truffles for more than a century, often hand-delivers their discoveries to restaurants around the world so that top chefs and customers can choose a fragrant fungi themselves.

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